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Colliding Galaxies Form Exclamation Point In Space (PHOTO)

Colliding Galaxies Exclamation Point

The Huffington Post   First Posted: 08/15/11 04:45 PM ET Updated: 10/15/11 06:12 AM ET

Rarely does a photo spell out the emotion it produces, especially in Space.

The stunning image, which you can see for yourself below, is actually a collision between two galaxies, now being called VV 340, according to NASA's Chandra Observatory. The upper half of the picture is currently considered VV 340 North, while the spiral in the bottom half is considered VV 340 South.

NASA's Chandra Observatory is mainly studying the images as part of a broader examination of galaxies emitting high levels of infrared radiation.

This example may actually be very similar to the early stages of a collision between our own galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy, which scientists expect to happen billions of years from now.

In August of 2010, scientists at Chandra revealed a glimpse of another galaxy collision, which began far more recently (100 million years ago). The X-Ray image of that collision was stunning as well, though perhaps not quite as well defined. You can scroll down to see a video with details and imagery of that collision.

Recently, astronomers announced they had discovered the darkest known exoplanet, and in June, researchers found that dual black holes may inhabit a nearby galaxy.

Check out the image below!!! (We felt the need to use multiple exclamation points for that.)

THE PHOTO (via NASA's Chandra Observatory):

RELATED VIDEO (Colliding Galaxies Examined in 2010):

FOLLOW HUFFPOST GREEN

Rarely does a photo spell out the emotion it produces, especially in Space. The stunning image, which you can see for yourself below, is actually a collision between two galaxies, now being called ...
Rarely does a photo spell out the emotion it produces, especially in Space. The stunning image, which you can see for yourself below, is actually a collision between two galaxies, now being called ...
 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
randomelyawesome1969
01:27 AM on 08/18/2011
How do you people go from watching such a beatiful picture to politicizing and God bashing?
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Mikeeee
Did you forgive god today?
11:30 PM on 09/01/2011
Because historically conservatives have never ever discovered any thing of value to the species and in many cases blocked or used discoveries to control people through a mythical being who lives in the sky.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
randomelyawesome1969
09:43 AM on 09/03/2011
Never mind the obvious fact that you did exactly what my original post described - who told you religious = conservative = anti-science? Certainly doesn't work in my case. Stop lumping. Liberals are supposed to be a bit smarter.
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07:24 PM on 08/17/2011
The artists at NASA did a very good job with the colours that they chose :3

The image is spacktacklular!

It also reminds me of an old computer game company logo and the G_ddess lubing up with sparkling tantric energy :3
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
DefunctRepublic
We're not scaremongering, this is really happening
06:08 PM on 08/17/2011
The universe and all its mystery and grandeur, infinitely more majestic, more transfixing to the human imagination, more arresting to human curiosity, than our own selfish solipsism which fuels the idea that this immense, ever-expanding phenomenon was "created" for our piddling journey towards "salvation". I'll be just fine acknowledging that the highest and purest power isn't some celestial dictator, but energy, gravity and the boundless mysteries we will most likely never solve. Nothing is more humbling than that.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Robin Edgar
Transcendentalist Super Hero
11:06 PM on 08/17/2011
Oh I don't know DefunctRepublic,

It seems to *me* that a Celestial Dictator (to use your term) who created all that energy, gravity, and boundless mystery etc. etc. etc. *could* be a bit more humbling than that.

No?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
DefunctRepublic
We're not scaremongering, this is really happening
11:23 AM on 08/18/2011
Really? To claim that the entirety of the universe was created for us, humans, is humble?
02:47 PM on 08/17/2011
"Space the final frontier, where no man has gone before"

By:Spock
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Keefe Lehman
09:46 AM on 08/17/2011
Please, please, please

Write congress and tell them not to cancel Hubble's successor the Web Telescope. We are only a few years away from making human kinds most remarkable discoveries.

Like the Save the Web Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-the-Webb-telescope/216696995033837
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
DefunctRepublic
We're not scaremongering, this is really happening
06:09 PM on 08/17/2011
Thank you for mentioning this, without the Web and its successors in the following decades, we won't be able to study the enormity of these astronomical phenomenon.
09:07 PM on 08/16/2011
No god involved, just billions of stars in a slow, slow, cosmic dance.
07:52 PM on 08/16/2011
I feel a great disturbance in the force as though billions of live are about to be snuffed out.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
DefunctRepublic
We're not scaremongering, this is really happening
05:26 PM on 08/17/2011
Tried to favorite but gave me badge option instead. Hilarious.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Robin Edgar
Transcendentalist Super Hero
11:29 PM on 08/17/2011
Yes that Celestial Dictator that DefunctRep­ublic was talking about makes Darth Vader look like a rank amateur. . .
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
HeyRemLA
Bottleinfrontofme Or frontallobatomy
04:37 PM on 08/16/2011
Maybe God finally had a good idea. Hope it's feed the children, free them from suffering... other than death and let Texas float away
This comment has been removed due to violations of our [Guidelines]
02:11 PM on 08/16/2011
Nature is putting on a show for us!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Robin Edgar
Transcendentalist Super Hero
11:11 PM on 08/17/2011
There is an Arthur C. Clarke science fiction short story that relates to this somewhat. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_(short_story)
01:04 PM on 08/16/2011
..........................."The heavens declare the glory of GOD".......Psalm 19:1
airmikee99
I can has micro-bio?
06:39 PM on 08/16/2011
Thank science for allowing us to witness such a spectacle. Amen.
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Yorksgal
'Conservative Christian' is a complete oxymoron.
12:54 PM on 08/16/2011
I wonder if anyone looks at our galaxy and thinks - oh how beautiful, and if you look hard enough there is a lovely blue planet there.

Great photographs.
01:21 PM on 08/18/2011
I have always been amazed and in awe of the lovely blue planet we all inhabit. I am also amazed why anyone would want to destroy the only trickle of life we know of in this infinate expanse of space. Why very few of its 6 billion members can't just get along. Some day soon, I fear, the universe will be without this little blue planet.
foreverdemocrat
Change is inevitable...
12:41 PM on 08/16/2011
Don't forget, all you 'EVOLUTIONISTS': ALL of these awesome, mysterious stars, planets, quasars, blackholes, super-giants, and galaxies... just, 'happened.' Right?

How about GOD created them? How about that?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
fredisfred
12:50 PM on 08/16/2011
And I suppose GOD... just, 'happened.' Right?
foreverdemocrat
Change is inevitable...
01:19 PM on 08/16/2011
YES. God always has been, and always will be.

Get used to it.

(I mean, seriously - you were 'born,' weren't you? Did you come from NOTHING??) Geesh.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Aj Armstrong
[insert witty self-observations here]
12:50 PM on 08/16/2011
Isn't God sort of the same explanation as everything "just happening"? Either a supernatural being created them out of thin air or they evolved from tiny particles into the objects we see today, over many, many millenia. Evolution is gradual, it isn't immediate.
12:36 PM on 08/16/2011
Inb4blameobama
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
HeyRemLA
Bottleinfrontofme Or frontallobatomy
04:40 PM on 08/16/2011
Brilliant. Now go back in your trailer.
12:24 PM on 08/16/2011
Like a dance of light- the images are fluid. Beautiful to see.